Our History

Medical services have been delivered on the Whittington site since 1473, when a leper hospital was founded. In 1848, a new hospital was built on the St Mary's site, to care for patients with smallpox during the period of epidemic.

Independently managed hospitals were opened on the Highgate site in 1866 and the Archway site in 1877.

In 1900, Highgate Hill Infirmary opened adjacent to the Smallpox and Vaccination Hospital.

The two hospitals soon amalgamated, and the Smallpox Hospital was transformed into a nurses' home.

In 1946, the hospitals on all three sites were brought together. The three hospitals had between them almost 2,000 beds. With the coming of the National Health Service in 1948, they jointly became The Whittington Hospital and began to modernise.